Trans-Siberian Orchestra

Trans-Siberian Orchestra was formed in 1996 by Paul O'Neill who immediately approached long time friends and collaborators Robert Kinkel and Jon Oliva to form the core of the writing team. While producing and writing for a number of years with various rock groups Paul was always looking for ways to make the music have greater and greater emotional impact. He tried to write the music that was so melodic it didn't need lyrics. And lyrics that were so poetic that they didn't need music but once you put the two of them together, the sum of the parts would be greater than the whole, and you couldn't imagine them apart. Once he'd done this, he was still looking for a way to take it to even greater heights and he realized that putting the songs within the context of a story would give it a third dimension that wou ld make that additional emotional impact possible. Hence, he started writing not just albums, but rock operas. He realized then, that there was an inherent problem recording rock operas within the standard rock and roll band makeup. Rock operas by their nature need the voices to change as the characters change. Rock bands normally only have one (or if you're lucky) two great vocalists to work with, therefore limiting how far you can go. You're forced to make the music fit the band, as opposed to allowing the music to go wherever it needs to. With Trans-Siberian Orchestra, first the music is created with no artificial limitations, and then we seek out within the classical, rock, Broadway and R & B worlds, the very best singers and musicians to bring each song to life. This also in many ways forces us to operate on a higher level. This environment has the additional benefit of causing a cross pollenization of musical ideas, creating hybrid forms of music that normally never would have occurred, such as an R&B singer doing a classical style melody and bringing gospel touches to it that causes it to glitter in ways that even the creators could not have predicted. Another very important aspect in the creation of the band, is that there could be no limits on the members; we mix all races and ages. The young get to mine the experience of the old musicians, while they can't help to be inspired by the enthusiasm of people just entering the business. This has created a vast constantly changing musical group that even we do not know what it is going to do next. Once when asked what Trans-Siberian Orchestra was about, Paul O'Neill replied, "It's about creating great art. When asked to define what great art was, Paul said, "The purpose of art is to create an emotional response in the person that is exposed to that art. And there are three categories of art; bad art, good art and great art. Bad art will elicit no emotional response in the person that is exposed to it, i.e.; a song you hear in an elevator and it does nothing to you, a picture on a wall that gives you the same emotional response as if the wall had been blank, a movie that chews up time. Good art will make you feel an emotion that you have felt before; you see a picture of a forest and you remember the last time you went fishing with your dad, you hear a song about love and you remember the last time you were in love. Great art will make you feel an emotion you have never felt before; seeing the pieta, the world famous sculpture by Michelangelo, can cause someone to feel the pain of losing a child even if they've never had one. And when you're trying for these emotions the easiest one to trigger is anger. Anyone can do it. Go into the street, throw a rock at someone, you will make them angry. The emotions of love, empathy and laughter are much harder to trigger, but since they operate on a deeper level, they bring a much greater reward.

Paul O'Neill: Composer, Lyricist, Producer Trans-Siberian Orchestra was formed in 1996 by Paul O'Neill who immediately approached long time friends and collaborators Robert Kinkel and Jon Oliva to form a core writing team. Paul O'Neill is a rare talent; a prolific writer and producer with a tremendously varied career in the music industry. A New York City native, O'Neill shaped his passion for music around the varied sounds he was introduced to while growing up - from Queen to classical, Yes to Harry Chapin, Broadway musicals to Jim Croce. After playing with a number of rock bands through high school and playing folk guitar gigs at downtown clubs, Paul took his first serious musical steps almost 20 years ago as the guitarist in the touring productions of "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "Hair." From 1980-85 he worked at Leber-Krebs Inc., the legendary management company that launched the careers of Aerosmith, AC/DC, Def Leppard, Ted Nugent, The New York Dolls, The Scorpions, and Michael Bolton among others. In the 1980's, Paul became one of the biggest rock promoters in Japan, promoting every tour of Madonna and Sting done in that decade, as well as some of the biggest rock festivals with such acts as Foreigner, Bon Jovi, Whitesnake and Ronnie James Dio. O'Neill's productions include Aerosmith's platinum "Classics Live, Volumes 1 & 2," Savatage's critically acclaimed "Hall of the Mountain King," "Gutter Ballet," the rock operas "Streets," "Dead Winter Dead," as well as the "Badlands" debut album. From there he expanded his horizons to create the ageless and widely praised Trans-Siberian Orchestra (TSO). The platinum selling band quickly became one of Lava/Atlantic's top artists. An established songwriter, O'Neill has also written and directed several music videos highlighted by "Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24)" from TSO's debut album "Christmas Eve and Other Stories," as well as the TV special "The Ghosts of Christmas Eve," starring Michael Crawford, Ossie Davis, Jewel, and TSO. TSO's music has recently been featured in several films such as "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas," and "Little Vampires."

Robert Kinkel: Composer, Co-producer, Keyboardist Robert Kinkel earned a BA in music at Hamilton College, studying composition, piano and organ. He minored in physics and received a fellowship to study Solid State Physics in Columbia University's Master's Program. He left halfway through the program taking a job at the Record Plant Studios in New York, where he soon began working as an assistant engineer on productions for artists such as "The Who,"

"The Police", and "Genesis." He next began to work as an independent session keyboard player and writer. He wrote, played on, and/or produced hundreds of Jingles, including the phenomenally successful "Hefty Wimpy" ad campaign. Kinkel scored music for MTV, Nickelodeon's "Clarissa Explains it All," Al Franken's audiobook, "Why Not Me," and industrials for AT&T and Verizon. Additionally, he helped pioneer a technique of sound design using and manipulating pure sound in a musical way, creating the sound logo for "A Current Affair" and bringing an entire office building to life for "Diet Coke." He began his collaboration with Paul O'Neill and Jon Oliva on the "Savatage" album "Hall of the Mountain King," playing keyboards and doing orchestrations. With subsequent "Savatage" albums he began writing and producing as well. Behind the scenes with Savatage, Robert moved out front as a member of the Creative Team for Trans-Siberian Orchestra, writing, producing, playing keyboards and serving as Musical Director for all albums, T.V. shows and concerts.

Jon Oliva: Composer Jon Oliva is a self taught multi-instrumentalist, accomplished on keyboards, guitar, drums, bass, violin and cello. Jon is internationally renowned for his work as founder, writer, keyboardist and lead singer for the hard rock band "Savatage." Formed in Tampa in 1981 the group, first called "Avatar," was formed with Jon's late brother, Criss Oliva and quickly established itself at the cutting edge of the hard rock world. The band soon changed its name to "Savatage." With their following growing and powerful live shows, Savatage signed a deal with Atlantic records. They toured America, Europe and Asia extensively. They've released numerous videos and have recorded twelve albums, including the most recent and highly acclaimed, "Poets & Madmen." When Atlantic Records and Jon brought Paul O'Neill in to produce "Hall of the Mountain King," it launched an incredibly powerful and prolific collaboration between the two and in 1996, Jon became one of the core writers for the newly formed Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Jon has been a key member of the group ever since.

The Band:

Vocals Steve Broderick

Guitar Chris Caffery

Vocals Jennifer Cella

Guitar Angus Clark

Vocals Tommy Farese

Narrator Tony Gaynor

Vocals Kristin Gorman

Vocals Heather Gunn

Vocals Erin Henry

Vocals Steena Hernandez

Narrator Bryan Hicks

Vocals Kelly Keeling

Keyboards Mee Eun Kim

Keyboards Bob Kinkel

Vocals Danielle Landherr

Vocals Guy LeMonnier

Vocals James Lewis

Vocals Tany Ling

Keyboards Jane Mangini

Vocals Max Mann

Bass Drums John Lee Middleton John O. Reilly

String Mstr. Anna Phoebe

Vocals Jay Pierce

Guitar Al Pitrelli

Drums Jeff Plate

Vocals Bart Shatto

Vocals Peter Shaw

Guitar Alex Skolnick

Keyboards Derek Wieland

String Mstr. Mark Wood

Bass Dave Z